The immensely popular blogger behind Little House Living provides a timeless and “heartwarming guide to modern homesteading” (BookPage) that will inspire you to live your life simply and frugally—perfect for fans of The Pioneer Woman and The Hands-On Home. Shortly after getting married, Merissa Alink and her husband found themselves with nothing in their pantry but a package of spaghetti and some breadcrumbs. Their life had seemingly hit rock bottom, and it was only after a touching act of charity that they were able to get back on their feet again. Inspired by this gesture of kindness as well as the beloved Little House on the Prairie books, Merissa was determined to live an entirely made-from-scratch life, and as a result, she rescued her household budget—saving thousands of dollars a year. Now, she reveals the powerful and moving lessons she’s learned after years of homesteading, homemaking, and cooking from scratch. Filled with charm, practical advice, and gorgeous full-color photographs, Merissa shares everything from tips on budgeting to natural, easy-to-make recipes for taco seasoning mix, sunscreen, lemon poppy hand scrub, furniture polish, and much more. Inviting and charming, Little House Living is the epitome of heartland warmth and prairie inspiration.

Low-Budget Should Never Mean Low-Quality In this practical cookbook, Shannon Stonger, author of Traditionally Fermented Foods and co-author of The Doable Off-Grid Homestead, invites you into her bustling homestead kitchen. She shares how she feeds her family of eight with delicious, nutritious meals for less. Based on the wisdom of traditional food diets, these recipes are focused on unprocessed ingredients, pastured animal products and frugal foods that people have thrived on for generations. The resulting meals are gluten-free, almost entirely dairy-free, picky eater–certified and, most importantly, deeply nourishing. Find tips and tricks for cutting down on costs while prioritizing nutrient density per dollar. Follow easy directions for sprouting or soaking grains and legumes to unlock their full nutritional value, then use them in yummy meals like A Better Kefir-Chia Soaked Granola or Soaked Gluten- Free Artisan Bread. Learn to tactfully utilize more expensive produce, with foolproof recipes like higher-protein, lower-cost Stretched-Out Guacamole. With recipes like Homemade Coconut Milk and Cultured Oatgurt, you can make your own pantry staples, saving you money. There are also tons of incredible dishes that maximize wholesome animal products, mouthwatering flavors and cost-effectiveness, such as Mediterranean Hide-the-Heart Meatballs, Stretch-the-Meat and Bean Loaf and Real Food Copycat Tomato Soup. Give your family the gift of nutritious meals made from real foods—without breaking the bank.

The word frugal is often misconstrued into a negative one. However, although a frugal lifestyle can seem like a sacrifice in quality, it doesn't have to be. Instead, you can choose to be frugal in ways that will add more value to your life. Do you want to start budgeting without living in survival mode? Do you want to cut cost but not quality of life? This book is for you! Included are tried and true tips from one family who has thrived on college student incomes while raising little ones. These are spending strategies that have allowed me to stay at home with four kids and thrive off of one income.

Feel like you’re trying to dig out from under a mountain of debt without a shovel? Tired of working your tail off just to break even? Is the high cost of living taking all the joy out of life? Unless you’re one of the top two percent of wealthiest Americans, all of the above should sound painfully familiar. While they’re trying to decide between the ski lodge in Telluride and the Tuscan villa, for the rest of us, it’s an endless litany of corporate lay-offs, stagnant wages, crushing credit card debt, skyrocketing medical costs, exorbitant utility bills, the high cost of higher education.... And they call this “the good life.” Is there a better way to live? Can you get what you need and what you want without killing yourself to get it? “Absolutely,” says frugal-living guru Deborah Taylor-Hough, and in Frugal Living For Dummies, she shows you how. In this warmhearted guide to living the good life on less, Deborah shows you how to live within your means and enjoy doing it. Among other things, she shows you how to: Eat like a king on a peasant’s budget Take the sting out of gift-giving Dress well on a shoestring Save big bucks on family expenses Slash household expenses Save on medical expenses Involve the whole family in saving money Save more for the things you want From basement to attic, cradle to grave, Frugal Living For Dummies covers all areas of life with common sense advice and guidance on: Working with your partner to achieve financial goals Going to the grocery without being taken to the cleaners Quick and thrifty cooking techniques Providing kids the basics on a tight budget Putting kids through school without going broke Looking good and feeling good on a tight budget Frugal holiday fun year round Saving money around the house and driveway Finding quality in pre-owned merchandise Packed with tried-and-true techniques for cutting costs and stopping the insanity, Frugal Living For Dummies is the ultimate financial survival guide for the rest of us.

Brown discusses the approaches to eating, sleeping, sanitation, storage, and safety on the smallest (15- to-24-foot) cruising sailboats, and reviews the various hull forms and sail plans available. This book is a revised edition of Brown's Sailing on a Microbudget, which reviewers called the winner for daysailing and weekend cruising'' (ENSIGN) and a real joy to read, reaffirming the adage that simple is better' with compact grace and style'' (Small Boat Journal).

The deeply personal story of why award-winning personal finance blogger Elizabeth Willard Thames abandoned a successful career in the city and embraced extreme frugality in order to create a more meaningful, purpose-driven life and retire to a homestead in the woods at age thirty-two with her husband and daughter. In 2014, Elizabeth and Nate Thames were conventional 9-5 young urban professionals. But the couple had a dream to become modern-day homesteaders in rural Vermont. Determined to retire as early as possible in order to start living each day—as opposed to wishing time away working for the weekends—they enacted a plan to save an enormous amount of money: well over seventy percent of their joint take home pay. Dubbing themselves the Frugalwoods, Elizabeth began documenting their unconventional frugality and the resulting wholesale lifestyle transformation on their eponymous blog. In less than three years, Elizabeth and Nate reached their goal. Today, they are financially independent and living out their dream on a sixty-six-acre homestead in the woods of rural Vermont with their young daughter. While frugality makes their lifestyle possible, it’s also what brings them peace and genuine happiness. They don’t stress out about impressing people with their material possessions, buying the latest gadgets, or keeping up with any Joneses. In the process, Elizabeth discovered the self-confidence and liberation that stems from disavowing our culture’s promise that we can buy our way to "the good life." Elizabeth unlocked the freedom of a life no longer beholden to the clarion call to consume ever-more products at ever-higher sums. Meet the Frugalwoods is the intriguing story of how Elizabeth and Nate realized that the mainstream path wasn’t for them, crafted a lifestyle of sustainable frugality, and reached financial independence at age thirty-two. While not everyone wants to live in the woods, or quit their jobs, many of us want to have more control over our time and money and lead more meaningful, simplified lives. Following their advice, you too can live your best life.